Warrant: Father Admits To Police He Hurt His Infant Daughter

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Marcus Rooks, 32, was charged with first-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor. (Courtesy of Hartford Police Department)

HARTFORD — Marcus Rooks was preparing to take his 2-month-old daughter Adore Daniels to visit his mother Sunday evening when the baby became fussy.

The baby’s mother, Lavasha Outlaw, had left Adore in Rooks’ care while she went to work.

Rooks, 32, of Manchester, would later tell Hartford police detectives that he bathed and changed Adore and began talking to her about visiting his mother.

The child began to cry loudly, he told the detectives, according to the warrant for his arrest. He admitted that he lost control of himself and began to yell and and swear at the infant. He said he picked the baby up from her crib and said, “What the [expletive], you don’t want to go see my mom?”

Rooks told the detectives that he talked to the infant like she was an adult, asked her questions and continued to swear at her. He said he then threw her head first into her bassinette. Her head struck the hard bottom. No blankets or cushion was covering it.

The infant was taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Monday and remained there Tuesday evening in critical condition, suffering from severe swelling of the brain and hemorrhaging in her eyes. The cause was severe head trauma, a doctor told detectives.